City will get more chicken

Tuesday

Mar 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

A sixth Chick-fil-A restaurant will be opening in the Tuscaloosa market this summer.

By Patrick RupinskiBusiness Editor

A sixth Chick-fil-A restaurant will be opening in the Tuscaloosa market this summer.The free-standing restaurant is under construction at 4900 Old Greensboro Road on the southern end of Tuscaloosa and will open on June 20, said Jeff Pritchett, who handles field operations for Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A Inc.“We are excited about that restaurant because we will be able to serve the people passing through the area on the interstate and the people who live and work on the south side of town,” he said.“It is just a great location for serving that part of the county.”Like the other non-campus Chick-fil-A restaurants in town, the new restaurant, which will be at the intersection of Skyland Boulevard and Old Greensboro Road next to the Kmart shopping center, will be a locally owned franchise.Pritchett said Chick-fil-A franchise owners live in the communities where they operate a restaurant.He said he could not yet identify the new franchisee, but said the business owner is in the process of moving his family to Tuscaloosa from Arkansas and will be the third franchisee in the Tuscaloosa market.“This (the new) Chick-fil-A will be joining our other Chick-fil-As in Tuscaloosa and Northport to better serve the community,” he said. Chick-fil-A is the nation’s second-largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain based on sales.Its other locations in the Tuscaloosa area include a restaurant in University Mall’s food court and a drive-through only restaurant at Midtown Village across McFarland Boulevard from the mall and a free-standing restaurant at the Kmart shopping center on McFarland Boulevard in Northport.The two Chick-fil-As located on the University of Alabama campus are run by the company providing food services there, he said. There are two separate franchise owners — one for Northport restaurant and the other for the University Mall/Midtown Village restaurants.Chick-fil-A is a privately owned company with about 1,600 restaurants. It was founded by S. Truett Cathy in 1946. Cathy remains the chairman and chief executive officer of the family-owned company that has about $4 billion in annual revenue.

Business editor Patrick Rupinski can be reached at patrick.rupinski@tuscaloosanews.com or 205722.0213.